Northgate and East Coweta’s varsity wrestling teams competed in the Fayette County Christmas Classic last week and both teams placed in the top 10.

The Northgate Vikings placed eighth and had several wrestlers place in the top six of their weight class. Drew Garner (275) placed second, while Brandon Jordan (135) placed third and Paul Sanford (125) and Josh Crager (130) placed fourth. East Coweta had two wrestlers place second, Derek Roetman (119) and Christian Flavin (189).

After the Fayette County tournament, Northgate traveled to compete in the Rockdale County Duals. the Vikings went 3-2 on the day, defeating Spalding County (56-14), Berkmar (48-36) and Northview (45-31). They lost to Starr’s Mill (49-24) and Rockdale County (47-22).

The McIntosh High School wrestling team traveled to Etowah on Friday before New Years to Compete in the Etowah High School Eagle Duals and finished 1-3 on the day. The Chiefs’ win came against North Hall (45-24) while taking losses against Forsyth Central (9-54), Etowah (34-42) and Paulding County (21-57).

Coming out of the Christmas holiday and a tough stretch of tournament competition the Chiefs traveled to north Georgia with less than a full compliment of wrestlers. The Chiefs competed with three or four weight classes being forfeited due to injuries and not making weight.

McIntosh was paced by sophomore Richard Hughes (112) with a perfect 4 – 0 record including three pins, thus improving his overall record to 35-1 and Jonathan Smith (275) with a 3 – 1 record and one pin. Senior Scott Ritter wrestled both at 171 and 189 and finished with a 2 -1 record as did Jarrod Chamblee who wrestled at 112 and 119.

Carl Scheumann (140), Matt Penn (145), Alex Shoemaker (160) and Matt Carroll (189) each finished the tournament with two wins and two losses. Jessy Toscano (125), Andy Milani (160) and Erik Willanzheimer (171)s each had one win on the day.

The best match of the day was wrestled by Shoemaker against his opponent from Etowah in the 171 class. Shoemaker was down 8-4 with less than 30 seconds left in the third period when he executed a powerful reversal for two points, then threw in a strong half-nelson, flipped his opponent and was awarded three back points for a near-fall. Shoemaker ended up winning the match 9-8.

Willanzheimer (171) and Ritter (189) tied for the quickest pin of the day. Each recorded a pin in 15 seconds in the first period against their opponents from North Hall.

Starr’s Mill performed well at the Kyle Maynard Duals, going 3-2 . The Panthers defeated Tucker 58-16, Eastside, 41-29 and Mt. Tabor, 39-30 and lost to Oviedo, 56-9 and Hoover 60-12.

login to post comments